Ten Brain Tricks for Learning Math Facts

I've been fascinated by the brain for years now. I've read about how the brain works, and the best ways to help children learn. I've applied this knowledge to my teaching and have had fabulous results!

 

 These are some of the things I've learned about the brain!

 Let's see how they relate to learning Math Facts!

   We know that “Practice Makes Perfect” is a fallacy since we know if a child practices something incorrectly, he learns it incorrectly.  Whatever they practice needs to be accurate so the child learns it correctly.  (I’m sure you know how hard it is to break a bad habit!)  When practicing facts, it's important that the child practices the correct answer. Either have the correct answer on the back of flashcards, or have the child practice with someone who knows the answers!

    This goes with the first idea: the kiddos need to know if they're getting the answer correct. If they are not, they need to know right away so they will practice it correctly.

   Brains are much more likely to remember something if the learner uses more than one process. If the children are looking at the fact, saying the fact out loud, and moving manipulatives on the tens frame, they are more likely to remember the information than if they just looked at it. Another idea, stating the fact while jumping on one foot, or while doing jumping jacks.

    When children work together, they are keeping the brain happy. Social interaction is HUGE when it comes to learning! This is one reason why games are great for learning math facts!

    A little healthy competition gets the blood moving, bringing oxygen to the brain and helping the memory do its thing. This is another reason why games are great for practicing facts!

   When the kids practice facts, it's a good idea to put fact families together: 4+7=11   7+4=11   11-4=7   11-7=4   or  3x6=18  6x3=18  18÷6=3  18÷3=6 This really helps the kiddos make the connections in the brain!

    If it's possible color code copies of facts by fact families.
The brain really focuses on color, and helps make those connections!

   This is why it's not a good idea to give the kiddos too many facts to study at a time. Start with just a couple of families, and build from there!

    It is suggested that children spend 5 minutes a day, every day, rather than a half-hour once a week. It's actually less time, but it's more productive!

     It is recommended that background music is played during practice times. This is a good time for a piece of classic music, not rock music or anything with lyrics. 

Hope this list helps your kiddos learn their facts!

This resource makes it clear just how many facts the children need to master!

It just so happens I have a set of addition and subtraction facts to practice that follow almost all these brain rules, (you have to supply your own music) and even has a few brain breaks worked in! See here if you're interested:  

Brain Friendly Addition and Subtraction: Fact Practice and Assessment

Update: Due to popular demand and success with the above set of addition and subtraction facts, I'm made a new version to practice and assess multiplication and division, which you can find here:  

Brain Friendly Multiplication and Division: Fact Practice and Assessents!

Do I Add or Subtract?

Brain research suggests adding movement with words in order to help the memory.

Many children struggle to remember when to add or subtract when they read math story problems. I decided to add some movement to help the kids remember when to add or subtract.

When we talk about an addition story, I have the children gesture one arm out and reference the first set. Then they gesture the second arm out and reference the second set. Then while we ask the question, we swoop our arms together into a plus sign, and say "How many all together?" or "How many in all?" The motion of bringing both arms together into a plus sign while saying the words really helps!

 

For subtraction, we start by gesturing a set in one arm. Then the second arm swoops away part of that set, making a minus sign with the arms.

Finally, for a subtraction comparison story, we gesture being a scale, balancing a set on each hand while saying, "How many more?" or "How many less?"

These gestures seem rather simple, yet with a few repetitions, the children remember them when they are doing word problems. In fact, I've had children come back to me long after they left my class and tell me how glad they are I taught them these gestures!

 It helps if you have fun math stories for the children to practice with. Here are a few themed math story problems to make the practice a little more fun!

Camping Math Story Problems 

Seashore Math Story Problems 

Football Math Story Problems

Halloween Math Story Problems (Freebie) 

Winter Math Story Problems With Two Questions

Groundhog and Super Football Math Story Problems

Mardi Gras and Valentine's Day Math Problems

St. Patrick's Day Math Story Problems (Freebie)

April Fool's Day Math Story Problems

Earth Day Math Story Problems

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Learning Math Facts With Cuisenaire Rods

Brain Research tells us that being physically involved with the learning process helps learning. 

It also suggests that use of color helps make connections. 

Teachers know that kids (and adults) tend to key into color, and children love to use manipulatives!

 

With Cuisenaire Rods (see picture) the white rod, the smallest, is one cubic centimeter.(This is the same size as a standard base ten block.) The longest rod is orange. When the children put the rods by length, they make a colorful "staircase". (See picture.)

 

 

The children can then assign values to each rod by color based on the relationship of the other rods.

I like to start with sets of ten, since our number system is based on ten.  It's good for them to know those combinations of ten!

 

Since the orange rod has a value of 10, this
picture shows 9+1=10. It also shows 1+9=10.  

It also shows 10-1=9 as well as 10-9=1.

 

What fact family do these blocks show?  6+4=10, 4+6=10, 10-6=4, and 10-4=6.  

 







This one shows 6+6=12 and 12-6=6

 



 The Cuisenaire Rods can also be used for multiple addends or even multiplication.  This could be 3+3+3+3=12 or 3x4=12.

When it comes to storage, the containers the rods come in are tricky for the kids to put away.  I put my Cuisenaire Rods into a container much easier for little hands.

I made these center sheets for the students. I prefer the children work with partners on activities like this since the conversations they have help the learning.  If you run these off back to back, you can make two-sided, half-size papers.

Click the image or click here for the sample: Fact Families with Cuisenaire Rods Sample!

For more sheets like this, click here: Fact Families with Cuisenaire Rods

I also have a resource to develop Number Sense with Cuisenaire Rods that can be found HERE.

Plus, a chance to build with the rods and add up the sums with multiple addends HERE. (This one is a favorite... they LOVE building with the rods!)

All these resources can be found as a bundled set HERE.

For a more advanced bundle of place value activities see: HERE.